he beat like a drum the best political machine the democratic party has seen since lbj, namely the clinton machine. as a challenger, he won by, you know, 7%, 8%. and he's got a lot of money. he's got the power of incumbency. he's got air force one. he's got the ability to set the message of the day from the white house. >> so obama is beating romney. romney is not beating himself. is that your point? >> no. what i'm saying is, any time a challenger has to clear the bar of credibility to sit behind that desk and make those decisions, historically, david, challengers close rate. and by the way, it isn't just 1980. >> and what about connecting to people like me? that's the poll question. isn't that where romney is struggling? he's out there talking this week about, well, tax cuts aren't going to be cut too far. he's going out there, the governor is saying, look, remember, i insured everybody. all the children are insured in massachusetts. that's got to drive some conservatives crazy, because that's what they don't like about the obama presidency. >> well, the actual thing is he should have be